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Saturday, July 22, 2017

If I had know that I would live in 5 houses in 9 years when I started this blog, I probably would have exclusively focused on the fun and challenges of buying, selling, and renovating to sell. I thought our last house would be our forever house. I slowly and carefully decorated each space and had big plans for the kitchen. Alas, a job change for my husband has brought us back to Richmond, VA and another new house.

At first I was so sad to leave our last house. It was a pretty amazing property. In addition to a unique design that was filled with unique touches and character, the lot spanned a little over two acres and was crossed by a wide creek that was deep enough for rock skipping and fishing. It was all pretty magical.

I'll post more on EVERYTHING we did to transform this house soon. Although it felt like home and we loved the community and neighborhood it was an older home and it was a lot to manage. When the opportunity to move back to Richmond came up, we couldn't pass up the lower cost of living and slower pace of the River City. Thankfully all of our renovation efforts paid off and the house sold after a month on the market.

Our new house (the 4th we've owned if you're keeping track) is the newest home we've owned yet. It was built in 1991. Thankfully it isn't covered with wallpaper and it isn't in need of MAJOR renovations. It does need some freshening up and we've already had all off the walls and trim painted. All of the trim was off-white. I'm decorating this home at a faster pace than the others. I know what I like and I've carried over a lot of the decor and design from our last house.

I'll post more about the new house, but today I want to share a room that is going in a completely new direction, the dining room. We decided to upgrade our World Market dining set with something a bit more grown-up. Basically the only existing piece going back into the room is my mid century modern hutch.

Here's the room as it looked when first toured the house:

Thankfully the stripes were painted. I don't think I could have handled another wallpaper removal project! Here's the plan:

The room has already been painted and it looks amazing! The grey linen will be used to line the back of the hutch and the colorful fabric will be sewn into long draperies. I cannot wait to show you the completed space!

Monday, May 15, 2017

Wehgo (my modern paint by number kit business) has been keeping me busy! I've still taken on a few crafting, decorating, and party projects - but I haven't had time to post anything. This weekend I spent a lot of time hanging with my kids. While playing board games with together, we came up with a cool idea that I think other parents and kids will love.

So my kids have been BEGGING for fidget spinners - you know those little spinning toys that are driving parents and teachers crazy? Well My kids finally got their own and after about an hour of excitement and spinning they were cast aside. My son picked his up casually while we were playing a board game on Saturday. As I watched it spin in his hands, the idea of a game that incorporates the fidget spinner was born.

I shared my idea with the kids and we started sketching it out. By the end of the day we had a game board (actually a large game mat, that we made with oil cloth and vinyl stickers cut with my silhouette machine) and basic rules of play.

We played the game and made a bunch of tweaks to the rules and how to play.

Yesterday I created a smaller (8.5' x 11') PDF Printable version of the game. You can download it here.

The game is easy to play. 2-5 players move game pieces across a grid. Players spin their fidget spinner on a color wheel to determine where they can move. Depending on the square they move to, they have to complete a fidget spinner challenge or challenge another player to stay on their square; they have the option to switch with another player on the board or spin to move to a different color; or stay put (blank squares).

Players can move forwards, backwards, and diagonally. They can also block other players - the game has a nice amount of strategy which makes it fun for adults to play too.

My kids loved using the spinners for game play. They helped come up with the challenges and some are pretty tough. To remedy this, the game includes number cards that you draw every time you do a challenge. The number you draw is the number of chances that you get to complete the challenge. The downloadable version of the game on Etsy also comes with blank cards for players to write their own challenges.

Some of the challenges we came up with include:

- Spin your spinner on one finger while standing on one foot for 20 seconds.

- Spin your spinner on one finger and pass it to one finger on your other hand without losing spin.

- Spin you spinner on a finger on your non-dominat hand for 30 seconds